Anirban Das

All 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg as of Wednesday expect the six-member Monetary Policy Committee to leave the repurchase rate at four per cent on Friday.

Investors are betting the easy money won't end anytime soon, with RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das keeping a lid on dissent as he nurses the economy back from its pandemic lows.

Kaushik Das, chief India economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Mumbai, says if cases continue to surge, it will cost the economy and the impact on growth will be felt in the April to June quarter

The RBI's challenge differs from most peers as it's also tasked with managing the government's mammoth borrowing and overseeing the nation's bad-debt-ridden banks.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das used a generous mix of tools to assure the bond market that the central bank will keep yields under control despite the government's record debt program.

The decision was the first under a newly constituted MPC, which includes three external members who have in the past supported monetary and fiscal stimulus to boost the economy.

Gross domestic product shrank 23.9 per cent in the three months to June from a year earlier, the Statistics Ministry said in a report Monday.

The Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep the benchmark repurchase rate at a record low of 4%, Governor Shaktikanta Das said.

High frequency data has showed that demand is virtually non-existent. The country's dominant services industries crashed last month, while car sales also collapsed.

The central bank last month lowered interest rates in an emergency meeting and announced $50 billion of liquidity injections.

In December, the RBI announced a Fed-style 'Operation Twist' -- buying long-dated bonds and selling the shorter tenor ones.

The fiscal plan -- delivered by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday -- proposed tax cuts for individuals and wider deficit targets, but failed to provide specific steps to fix a struggling financial sector, improve infrastructure and create jobs.

A career central banker, 59-year-old Mr Patra is currently executive director in charge of the RBI's research department and has a seat on the six-member Monetary Policy Committee.

The RBI has cut borrowing costs by 135 basis points so far in 2019 to a nine-year low of 5.15 per cent. The meeting of the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) led by Governor Shaktikanta Das, who completes one year in office next week, comes amid deepening concerns about growth, financial stability and weak public finances.

Shaktikanta Das, overseeing what was until recently the world's fastest-growing major economy, has worked tirelessly to restore relations with the government after a bitter public spat led his predecessor Urjit Patel to quit.

All 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg as of Wednesday expect the six-member Monetary Policy Committee to leave the repurchase rate at four per cent on Friday.

Investors are betting the easy money won't end anytime soon, with RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das keeping a lid on dissent as he nurses the economy back from its pandemic lows.

Kaushik Das, chief India economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Mumbai, says if cases continue to surge, it will cost the economy and the impact on growth will be felt in the April to June quarter

The RBI's challenge differs from most peers as it's also tasked with managing the government's mammoth borrowing and overseeing the nation's bad-debt-ridden banks.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das used a generous mix of tools to assure the bond market that the central bank will keep yields under control despite the government's record debt program.

The decision was the first under a newly constituted MPC, which includes three external members who have in the past supported monetary and fiscal stimulus to boost the economy.

Gross domestic product shrank 23.9 per cent in the three months to June from a year earlier, the Statistics Ministry said in a report Monday.

The Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep the benchmark repurchase rate at a record low of 4%, Governor Shaktikanta Das said.

High frequency data has showed that demand is virtually non-existent. The country's dominant services industries crashed last month, while car sales also collapsed.

The central bank last month lowered interest rates in an emergency meeting and announced $50 billion of liquidity injections.

In December, the RBI announced a Fed-style 'Operation Twist' -- buying long-dated bonds and selling the shorter tenor ones.

The fiscal plan -- delivered by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday -- proposed tax cuts for individuals and wider deficit targets, but failed to provide specific steps to fix a struggling financial sector, improve infrastructure and create jobs.

A career central banker, 59-year-old Mr Patra is currently executive director in charge of the RBI's research department and has a seat on the six-member Monetary Policy Committee.

The RBI has cut borrowing costs by 135 basis points so far in 2019 to a nine-year low of 5.15 per cent. The meeting of the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) led by Governor Shaktikanta Das, who completes one year in office next week, comes amid deepening concerns about growth, financial stability and weak public finances.

Shaktikanta Das, overseeing what was until recently the world's fastest-growing major economy, has worked tirelessly to restore relations with the government after a bitter public spat led his predecessor Urjit Patel to quit.